Five things to look out for at the AFC Champions League Elite semi-finals in Jeddah

LONDON: Three Saudi Arabian teams entered the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League Elite in Jeddah, and all three progressed to the last four. On Tuesday, Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal meet in the first semi-final while, 24 hours later, Al-Nassr take on Kawasaki Frontale of Japan. Here are five things to look out for as the continent’s premier club competition reaches its climax.

Al-Dawsari the main man for Al-Hilal

The headlines wrote themselves after Al-Hilal thrashed Gwangju FC 7-0 on Friday. A team that had looked uncharacteristically shaky on the home front was suddenly back to doing its favorite thing, winning big in big Asian games.

Coach Jorge Jesus would have been delighted with the fact that all seven goals against the South Koreans were scored by different players. Perhaps the best was Salem Al-Dawsari’s effort as he moved to nine goals for the tournament so far. That is an incredible effort for a player who is not a striker and is surrounded by players who love nothing more than to get on the scoresheet.

So for all the famous foreign talent, it is a very familiar face that Al-Ahli will have to be wary of on Tuesday. Al-Dawsari is in some of the best form of an exceptional career. He will take some stopping and, on Friday’s evidence, so will Al-Hilal.

Recent Ahli win means nothing but Firmino on fire

“Bring on Al-Hilal” chanted the Al-Ahli fans as their team defeated Buriram United 3-0 on Saturday.

Understandably so. It was just a few weeks ago that Ivan Toney scored a hat-trick to give the Greens a famous 3-2 win over the Blues in Riyadh. That will give the Jeddah giants confidence but will not actually mean that much when the two teams take the pitch in Jeddah. Beating Al-Hilal once a season is not